Joel Osteen and Pope Francis

Joel Osteen the prosperity preacher from Houston has just moved up from his $2m mansion to a $10m mansion. Heres the news.

This is one of the things that tickle me about American Protestantism. These are the folks who have traditionally beat the Catholics with a big stick about the Pope living in a palace surrounded by rich art works.

The other thing is the way Protestants will beat up on Catholics for having a highly exalted infallible leader who is treated like a celebrity. Duh. The problem with them is not that they dont have a Pope, but that they have 30,000 popes. Every pastor a pope, and Pope Osteen is just one among many.

So Pope Francis lives in a modest suite in a functional hostel while Pope Joel lives in a palace in Houston. Even when the popes lived in the apostolic palace they only lived in a comparatively modest apartment in the palace, and all that art? Its history and heritage. He doesnt own it. It belongs to the worldwitness the crowds who come and go talking of Michelangelo.

But who am I to judge? They say Joel Osteen makes all his loot from sale of his books and calendars and self help T-shirts. Hes welcome to it I guess, and who knows, he might live like a prince of the Church on a fraction of his takings. He might give 90% of his wealth to the poor. So live and let live and let God be the judge.

But when it comes to appearances, when it comes to the one who seems to live the life of apostolic simplicity Pope Francis wins.

For that matter, he wins with the gospel hes preaching too. The American prosperity gospel is a false gospel. Its no surprise that Osteens church doesnt have a cross in it. Neither does the gospel hes preaching.

Just thought are there any photoshoppers out there who can send me a pic of Osteen being carried around in the sedia gestatoria?

“This is one of the things that tickle me about American Protestantism. These are the folks who have traditionally beat the Catholics with a big stick about the Pope living in a palace surrounded by rich art works.

The other thing is the way Protestants will beat up on Catholics for having a highly exalted infallible leader who is treated like a celebrity. Duh. The problem with them is not that they dont have a Pope, but that they have 30,000 popes. Every pastor a pope, and Pope Osteen is just one among many.”

Ummm... no. Most Protestants decry Joel Osteen for those things too, and most Protestant leaders do not engage in this behavior that Osteen does. Not to mention that no Prostestant pastor can claim infallibility or some universal jurisdiction, so calling them “popes” is just ludicrous.

Now, if we cherry picked one pedophile priest that Catholics roundly denounced and held him up as an exemplar of Catholicism, I have a feeling this author would not be okay with that.

That seems to be the thing, to count all churches and denominations that are not of the Catholic denomination, as a single church, and then scour the world for tales and stories as though it is a single church.

15
posted on 08/28/2013 12:12:18 PM PDT
by ansel12
(Obama-[obamacare] "used to be a Republican idea. There's a governor of Massachusetts who set it up.")

The YBPDLNPL is generally published infrequently, but based on the exploits of the megachurch pastors posts can spike for a period of time. If you would like on or off of this list please FReepmail me.

16
posted on 08/28/2013 12:12:27 PM PDT
by Gamecock
(Many Atheists take the stand: "There is no God AND I hate Him.")

Joel Osteen the prosperity preacher from Houston has just moved up from his $2m mansion to a $10m mansion. Heres the news. This is one of the things that tickle me about American Protestantism. These are the folks who have traditionally beat the Catholics with a big stick about the Pope living in a palace surrounded by rich art works.

The other thing is the way Protestants will beat up on Catholics for having a highly exalted infallible leader who is treated like a celebrity. Duh. The problem with them is not that they dont have a Pope, but that they have 30,000 popes. Every pastor a pope, and Pope Osteen is just one among many. So Pope Francis lives in a modest suite in a functional hostel while Pope Joel lives in a palace in Houston.

Class warfare, 30,000 denominations (Hey Gamecock! We're back down to 30,000 this week!), and every non-Catholic's a Protestant. It's a cornucopia of Catholic carping!

Hogwash. I enjoy Joel. Light years better than the pastors that have been in my church who told me to send money to Idi Amin and made me go to marriage classes to teach me not about marriage but how I should back the equal rights amendment.

I also enjoyed Eugene Scott. Made mrs p6 watch him while she was in labor with our second child. Actually it was the only program on the hospital TV that late at night, lol!

Ok, forget pedophiles. How about Father Korapi? He had plenty of followers and still turned out to be a rotten egg. Should we hold him up as an exemplar of Catholic clergymen? Or would you say that is cherry picking a bad example that is not representative of the group?

How did they come up with that figure, and what is the total estimated wealth of the Catholic church? What did they estimate the Sistine Chapel art at, and who is the they that came up with a figure that so many sources and economists dispute and that strikes many people as laughable?

34
posted on 08/28/2013 1:11:37 PM PDT
by ansel12
(Obama-[obamacare] "used to be a Republican idea. There's a governor of Massachusetts who set it up.")

.....”The monetary value of the Vatican and Catholic Churches around the world are FAR in excess of $1 billion....”

Here we go again with nonsensical arguments. Anyone that lumps the value of all the Catholic Churches into the value of the Vatican has rocks for brains. I will give you another chance to think this through.

The Catholic church is made up of a few billion Catholics. Of course there is monetary value in the churches. As for the Vatican, just what amount would you be willing to sell the Pieta for if you owned it - and would you guarantee that it would be protected from damages? How about the Sistine Chapel????????? How much should the CC sell that for anyway? What price the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, etc....? The Vatican, if it was owned by someone else, would still be a museum filled with priceless art works.

Every Catholic who donates money to the church is paying for the preservation of the Christian worlds’ priceless history and heritage.

Isn't that way outdated, isn't that 10-15 billion dollar figure from a Time magazine article from 1965 for instance?

So, since the Vatican is "rich," it should sell all its churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages, Vatican City, etc., and give that money to the poor, right? And what exactly would that achieve, besides assuring subsequent generations never receive any of the help and benefits from those same churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages, Vatican City, etc.?

Joel does acknowledge that some things are sin but says, I dont address these things from the pulpit. They only come up in interviews. When asked if openly practicing gay/homosexual people will be accepted into heaven, Joel Osteen responded, I believe they will.

“The other thing is the way Protestants will beat up on Catholics for having a highly exalted infallible leader who is treated like a celebrity. Duh. The problem with them is not that they dont have a Pope, but that they have 30,000 popes. Every pastor a pope, and Pope Osteen is just one among many.”

I don’t actually even think Osteen is a Christian. Then again, I think the same thing about “Papa” Francis.

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